Dr Elisabetta Burchi, psychiatrist, entrepreneur, and Head of Research at Parasym, is helping advance the growing field of neuromodulation, using gentle electrical stimulation to influence the body's nervous system through the vagus nerve.

Often described as the body's communication superhighway, the vagus nerve plays a key role in regulating heart rate, inflammation, mood, cognition, and overall resilience.

Parasym has developed a transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) device that stimulates the nerve through the tragus, a point on the outer ear, providing a non-invasive alternative to implanted technologies.

Backed by more than 100 studies and clinical trials, vagus nerve stimulation has been investigated across a wide range of conditions, including Long Covid, ME/CFS, hypertension, depression, fatigue, anxiety and cognitive dysfunction, with promising results.

Parasym has also explored how vagus nerve stimulation may enhance cognitive performance and mental clarity in healthy individuals, raising interesting questions about the future of health and human performance.

In this episode, we explore:

• What the vagus nerve is and why it matters
• How vagus nerve stimulation works
• The science behind neuromodulation
• The difference between non-invasive ear stimulation and implanted devices
• How stimulation may affect heart rate variability (HRV), inflammation, and neuroplasticity
• What the evidence says about effectiveness, safety, and adherence
• The potential role of vagus nerve stimulation in both chronic illness and everyday health

Whether you're interested in chronic illness, neuroscience, longevity, or optimising brain and body function, this conversation explores one of the most exciting and rapidly evolving areas of health science.

View the glossary of terms here.

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If you live with fibromyalgia, ME/CFS, EDS or chronic pain, you've likely heard that exercise may help. You've also probably learned, the hard way, that the wrong kind of effort costs you for days afterwards. The truth is that thoughtfully-designed physical therapy strategies can help with quality of life, if the approach is individualised and built around a person's baseline.

In this episode physical therapist **Ryan Bourdo** (Oregon Health and Science University, Portland), experienced in caring for people with these conditions, explains how his approach of individualised, patient-led therapy can improve patients' day-to-day lives.

Ryan specialises in fibromyalgia, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), and their co-morbidities, and approaches each patient with time, empathy, and the willingness to listen. He explains how understanding his patient’s life, needs and pain points is the most instrumental part of him being able to help.

We also hear from occupational therapist Amy Mooney, who brings over two decades of experience working with fibromyalgia, ME/CFS, Long Covid, EDS, MCAS, and Post-Exertional Malaise (PEM). Amy runs her own telehealth programme OT4ME and collaborates with the Bateman Horne Center to train healthcare professionals and support patients.

Amy Mooney is an occupational therapist with over two decades experience providing care for individuals with conditions such as Fibromyalgia, ME/CFS, Long Covid, EDS, MCAS, with a particular focus on Post-Exertional Malaise (PEM). Amy runs her own telehealth programme OT4ME and collaborates extensively with the Bateman Horne Center to educate healthcare professionals and support patients.

If you live with fibromyalgia or chronic pain, and want to how understand physical or occupational therapy might help, this episode is for you. In our conversation we explore:

• The role that simple movement can play in managing chronic pain
• Why physical therapy should not become an added burden for people already in pain.
• The importance of listening to patients with energy-limiting conditions
• How small, simple strategies can help patients see their condition as manageable
• Creating a low-stress environment
• What rest actually looks like — and why it's not the same as doing nothing
• How simplification can unlock the "golden nuggets" of everyday life

Through both of these conversations, the same idea shines through - treat patients as individuals.

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For 23 years, Dr Lucy Foulkes has lived with chronic pain, migraines, endometriosis, joint hypermobility, and a cycle of unexplained symptoms. She was seen by neurologists, rheumatologists, urologists, gynaecologists, physiotherapists, and nutritionists. Nobody connected the dots. Then last year, a stranger's Instagram message changed everything, and finally led her to a diagnosis of hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS).

In this episode of Make Visible, Dr Foulkes brings a uniquely powerful dual perspective: an Oxford psychologist who researches diagnosis, self-diagnosis, and mental health language, and a patient who spent over two decades undiagnosed.

If you are living with unexplained chronic pain, fatigue, migraines, MCAS, POTS, endometriosis, hypermobility, or you have ever been told that your symptoms don't add up, this episode is for you.

In this episode we cover:

• The siloed medical system that treats symptoms in isolation, and why it consistently fails complex chronic illness patients
• Dr Foulkes' 23-year diagnostic journey through hEDS, chronic migraine, endometriosis, and more
• The Beighton Scale and how hEDS and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder (HSD) are assessed, and the potential change in diagnostic criteria in late 2026
• The mental load of living with chronic illness: rationing medication, energy, and life itself
• Self-diagnosis in chronic illness and mental health: danger or necessity?
• Why diagnosis can feel like relief, not a sentence
• Practical strategies for living well within the limits of chronic illness
• Identity versus illness: how not to let your condition become who you are

About Lucy Foulkes

Lucy Foulkes is a Research Fellow in Psychology at the University of Oxford, specialising in adolescent mental health and social development. She is the author of Coming of Age: How Adolescence Shapes Us (2024) and What Mental Illness Really Is… And What It Isn't (2021). Her essay ‘Welcome To My Body’ is available to read here.

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Find it easier to read than listen? Download the transcript here.

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